PET Scan Technology Comes to the County

Officials from TAMC have announced that the Presque Isle medical center is taking the next step in cancer care for northern Maine.

The healthcare facility is committing more than $1.5 million to bring PET scan technology to the region.

Sylvia Getman, TAMC president/CEO said during a press conference, “We will now be able to locally offer the standard for cancer evaluation and ongoing staging of treatment that people have had to previously travel to Bangor to access.”

A PET (positron emission tomography) scan is a nuclear test that shows a person’s physiology, looking at the biological behavior of lesions or abnormalities.  While a CT (computerized tomography) scan is an anatomical test, showing where in the body the tumor is, the PET scan is more of a functional test, showing how things are working.  The new PET/CT scanner that will be installed at TAMC in the near future performs both of these tests in one patient sitting and merges the scans together for the best view possible.